Tag Archives: after school snack

A second recipe for Sue’s snack

20 Apr

No matter which recipe you use, this is a delicious treat!

Yesterday I mentioned that I had two different recipes to go along with the snack that Sue makes. This second recipe is one that my friend Pam sent me a while back on a snow day. Here it is as I posted it that February day on Facebook:

Chocolate Crack

1 box graham crackers

2 sticks salted butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups semisweet chips (1 twelve ounce package)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 10×15 cookie sheet with foil, spray with PAM.

Line the pan with graham crackers, using single pieces to fill in the gaps.

Line completely with crackers, breaking to fill in gaps.

Combine butter and brown sugar in saucepan.

Bring to boil over medium heat, boil for exactly five minutes.

Pour over graham crackers as evenly as possible and bake ten minutes.

The chocolate chips will melt upon contact with the hot butter and brown sugar mixture.

Sprinkle chips over the top and spread once they melt.

Refrigerate to chill.

Once solid, break into random sized pieces.

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By popular demand: A recipe for another of Sue’s treats

19 Apr

These little bits seem like one small bite, but you can never eat just one!

Last week we had PTO and Book Club. Sure enough, my good friend Sue brought snack for us all. It was one of my faves, a chocolate/caramel/matzo snack that she makes for passover. I was so lucky, she sent some home with me (and no, she hadn’t seen the 4/13  blog post about her snacks yet!)

This photo is from the ones she sent home with me. When we took the photo the camera was accidentally on the wrong setting, so the color is slightly off. However, once we ate the snack there was no retaking the photo!

Since I wrote about Sue and all her yummy desserts, I’ve had several requests for the matzo snack. Sue actually recommended making it ahead and freezing it if you’d like to. She said it stays well.

I actually have two different recipes for it so I’m going to post one today and one tomorrow. One calls for Saltines, one calls for Graham Crackers. One uses salted butter and one uses unsalted. Although they differ slightly, the snack is basically the same overall. You can pick one and sub in the matzo crackers for the Saltines or the Graham Crackers. I have made both.

Here’s the first version for you. This one I posted on Facebook in March 2010 after seeing it in an issue of Country Living Magazine a few years back. Here’s the post:

“Mama’s Sweet and Saltines”

Not my mama this time. I got this recipe out of Country Living magazine and it’s Trisha Yearwood’s mama I guess.

I’d actually had this before, but just found the recipe for it the other day. The only thing I didn’t have on hand was the unsalted butter, which Don promptly bought after seeing the recipe.

40 Saltine Crackers (can use graham crackers for a sweeter taste.
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a large-rimmed cookie sheet with foil and the forty crackers. Be sure the pan you choose will fit in your freezer and be sure you have space in your freezer for the pan!!!

In a medium saucepan melt butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over crackers covering them evenly.

Put cookie sheet in oven and watch closely. Bake for about 5 minutes (mine took three) until just bubbly.

Remove from oven and pour chocolate chips over crackers.

When chips begin to melt, spread them over crackers with a knife.

Transfer pan to freezer for 15 to 20 minutes or until completely cold. The chocolate covered crackers will forma solid sheet. Break into pieces and store in airtight container.

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After School Snack: Strawberry Banana Yogurt Smoothies

11 Apr

Great for sore throats, warm weather, a healthy snack!

We had an unusually warm, hot actually, March this year. The weather broke all kinds of records and we loved the taste of summer that came during spring. It meant a couple of things for us though: First it meant that springtime allergies kicked in early, so everyone started with sore throats and runny noses in March instead of April. Second, it meant that the daily “can we get ice cream” and “can we get frozen lemonade” questions started early as well.

When I pick my kids up at school we drive by one of our city’s popular ice cream drive ups as well as past our favorite frozen lemonade stand. On occasion, on super hot summer days we’ll stop there after school as a treat, but I wasn’t really ready to start that in March. Not yet. It’s an expensive treat, one we don’t do too often.

One particularly hot afternoon, as an answer to their pleas, I decided to make smoothies, something I often do as an after school snack, but not usually in March. On this particular afternoon though, I had fresh strawberries in my fridge, (frozen works well too) and I had bananas in my freezer, which I often use for banana bread, but they work well for smoothies too. I had some vanilla yogurt in my fridge, so I felt I could easily pull off some smoothies for an after school snack.

A blender doesn't have to be expensive to make a delicious treat!

My “recipe” isn’t exact, but into my blender I threw: a bunch of strawberries, two frozen bananas, milk, about a cup of vanilla yogurt, and some ice to make it have a frozen feel, like a milkshake, but healthier.

I added a dollop of whipped cream and a straw and I had a restaurant-quality summer beverage for my kids for after school. Not bad! Everyone was happy and I was glad there was even enough for me to have some!

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Pizzelles: a special treat this Easter

9 Apr

Easter isn’t the same as Christmas, where we have a ton of different kinds of cookies, or even like Thanksgiving, where we have tons of homemade pies for dessert. We usually have Grandma Rose’s Rice Pie for dessert as well as the Easter Sweet Bread and that’s usually it (and don’t get me wrong, that’s plenty!!) This year though, we had a special treat: I made Pizzelles! Pizzelles bring me right back to my childhood whenever I eat them. Grandma Grello still makes them and I love them.

We’d been having a discussion about them with her recently and I realized that even though we received a Pizzelle Maker years ago from my mother-in-law as an anniversary gift, it’d been a really long time since I’d used it. I thought that this Easter would be a great time to make them for an extra-special treat.

The great thing about the Pizzelle Maker is that it comes with the recipe, several of them. The basic recipe is a quick and easy recipe and once you get the hang of how much batter to put on the machine, the pizzelles come quickly, about every 30 seconds. It says the recipe makes about 30, but I probably broke up at least six of the “mistakes” into bits for the kids to eat as I was getting the hang of how much batter and how long to cook them. I also let them each eat a whole one once I did get the hang of it. We ended up with about 20 of them at the end.

For the batter, they recommended using one heaping teaspoon in each of the two molds, but when I tried that, they were too small, only about half the size of a regular cookie. So I upped it to one heaping TABLESPOON instead and it worked out perfectly. They also recommended putting the batter into the center of the mold more towards the back, which seemed to work out well.

One important trick is to be sure to take them off and place them on a flat surface to cool (assuming you want them to be flat.) They come off the mold warm and soft, and they will form any shape you put them on, so even a plate that isn’t entirely flat will cause them to be off-kilter a bit. I put them directly onto a plate and then brought them to the cooling racks on the table and quickly slid them onto the racks to cool completely flat.

I think that’s all the important things to note. Here’s the basic pizzelle recipe I used as well as my adjustments to it.

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1  3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup melted butter, margarine or oil (I used oil)

3/4 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

Beat eggs and sugar.

Add cooled melted butter or margarine (or oil) and vanilla.

Sift flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture.

Batter will be stiff enough to be dropped by spoon. (Use one heaping tablespoonful per cookie.)

Batter can be refrigerated to be used at a later time.

Makes 30 pizzelles.

*For chocolate pizzelles add 3 tablespoons cocoa and 3 tablespoons sugar.

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Just in time for Passover: Meringue Cookies

6 Apr

Cookies for Passover!

Good Friday and Passover fall on the same day this year, so I am making sure to post recipes for both. On Wednesday I posted my family’s Easter Sweet Bread recipe and today I am posting a recipe passed along to me by my friend Pam. I tried these out with my “focus group,” aka my three kids, and they all immediately gave them two thumbs up. They were quick and easy. I worked that day and got home about a half hour before the kids did, and the timing was perfect; the cookies were just coming out of the oven.

As I was making them, I questioned whether or not they were in fact a healthy treat since they did not contain egg yolks or flour. However, I figured out as I went along that the chocolate chips and sugar kind of cancelled out any healthiness they might have had.

The kids loved these cookies and are already asking me to make them again. They’re certainly easy enough that I could make them any time.

A few notes:

*The recipe below calls for mini chocolate chips but I only “do” regular chocolate chips, so that’s what I used. It also said that you could use any variety of chocolate chips, but I only had the chocolate variety at the time.

*Pam noted that you could use food coloring to make the cookies fit any desired theme.

*It says to use Parchment Paper on the tray, which I missed and a few of my cookies stuck to the tray, I’m assuming because of it. Next time I’d be sure to use the Parchment Paper.

Enjoy!

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Chocolate chip meringue cookies

makes 2 /12- 3 dozen cookies
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cream of tarter
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ C sugar
6 oz. mini choc, chips, or any flavor you like or feel free to mix and match
·       in large dry mixing bowl beat egg whites till foamy
·       gradually salt, cream of tarter and vanilla
·       slowly pour in sugar, ¼ C at a time
·       beat until peaks form and will be white and shiny
·       fold in chips
·       drop tsp. worth of batter onto parchment covered cookie sheet
·       bake 300 degrees for 20minutes
·       cool before removing

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Breakfast or Snack: Apple Oat Muffins

14 Mar

Twice in one week for a Karen's Cookbook recipe.

Friday afternoons and evenings tend to be chock full of after school activities for us, between dance classes and Daisy meetings. Therefore, I often try to choose that day if possible, to make a pretty solid after school snack for the kids, one that will last them until 7:45 when we usually get to eat dinner on Friday nights. Last week when I pulled out Karen’s Cookbook for the Taco Bake recipe, I flipped through it and saw her Apple Oat Muffins recipe and knew that’d be a perfect-and almost healthy-snack for that Friday afternoon. I even, gasp….threw in raisins instead of adding in chocolate chips the way I normally would. They were delicious, even though Alex picked out all the raisins, wondering what on earth those foreign objects were, since they neither looked nor tasted like a chocolate chip. The recipe is simple and I know you’ll love it!

You will love these super-moist muffins!

APPLE OAT MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup shortening (I used 1/4 cup butter after looking up a substitution for shortening on the internet.)

1 cup quick oats

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

2-4 apples peeled and sliced

Cinnamon sugar for the tops (I have a shaker of this mix, so I sprinkled that on top.)

(raisins or craisins or chocolate chips are all good add-ins if you’re interested)

DIRECTIONS

Mix flour, baking powder and cut in shortening til coarse crumbs form.

Stir in oats.

Combine eggs, milk, and brown sugar, beat well.

Add dry ingredients and apples.

Spoon into baking cups and top with cinnamon & sugar

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

The kids can always tell when they get home, if I've baked them a treat, and on this particular day, my house had a delicious smell. They knew right away that something good was in store for them!

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After school snack: Homemade Granola Bars x2

16 Feb

This was the first time that I thought to use a pizza stone for them, and I wish I'd done it sooner. Made it much easier to cut them.

A few years back I came across a recipe in the newspaper for “Becky’s Homemade Granola Bars.” Through the years I’ve made them a variety of ways. My kids always love them for an after school snack, and the last time I made them Elizabeth came home and saw them and said, “Oh Mommy I was thinking about these ALL day at school, and I didn’t even know you were going to make them today!” Score one for Mom…

This recipe is one you can make a variety of ways, using whatever you have in the house really. I’ve done craisins, raisins, chocolate, and even snuck in carrots once or twice with the raisins. I actually loved those, nice and sweet.

Here's what happens when I don't take the photo quick enough...an empty plate!!

One time when I made them,  I didn’t have half the stuff on the list so I made up my own, using her original as a basis for it. They came out great, best I’d ever made. I don’t always do them the same way, either. I almost always double her original recipe to make lots.

So below are the two recipes, mine first, and then Becky’s below that. Two for the price of one.

Jen’s Chocolate Craisin Granola Bars
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Oatmeal (Quick Oats)
1/3 cup Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 package Craisins
2/3 cup chocolate chip (I use semi sweet)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl together.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix butter, honey and brown sugar, stir.

Pour hot ingredients from saucepan over the dry ingredients in large bowl. (This will melt the chocolate chips.) Stir until completely mixed.

Pour out onto a cookie sheet and flatten out until even all the way across the pan in both directions. There may not be enough mixture to spread right to the edge of the pan but it’ll get pretty close.

Bake 20-22 minutes, check at 20 minutes. You’ll kind of be able to see the edges crisp up. With them being chocolate colored, it’s hard, but you can still tell. Cool completely in pan and cut or break into bars.

Next….

A nice big bowl is needed to mix all the ingredients together.

Becky’s Granola Bark (my notes in parenthesis.)
INGREDIENTS
1 cup oats
1 cup sliced almonds (I’ve used pureed almonds, 1/3 cup.)
1/2 cup coconut flakes (I never used them I don’t like coconut)
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey

other mix-ins could could include pumpkin puree, carrot puree, raisins. (As I mentioned above, I particularly like the raisin and carrot combo, makes it sweet.)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl mix together dry ingredients. Set aside.

In small saucepan combine butter, honey and brown sugar.

Pour over oat mixture and stir to combine.

Spread on cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes.

Let cool completely in pan and cut or break into pieces.

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New after school snack recipe: Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

7 Feb

I’m a couponer now, I told you last week. In my new life as a couponer, I have discovered something in the coupon fliers: Recipes! Last week I found one that looked like it would be a great after school snack that all my of kids and I would like. It only had two ingredients (even better!) and both were things I almost always have on hand. I decided to try it this past week and my kids inhaled it.

The thing I like about dips with veggies and/or fruit is that I find that my kids will consume much more fruit or veggies with a dip than they would if they came home and I directed them to the fridge for a piece of fruit. So, I like to find new and different dips for them and I love to surprise them with something new when they come home. They show up ravenous, so I like to have their snack on the table when they get in, before anyone has a low-blood sugar meltdown. Sometimes I’ve only just gotten in myself, so my after school snacks need to be quick and easy, just like all my other recipes and meals.

So, here’s our newest addition to the recipe files. I’ve already made it twice in one week, it was so good. Please note that if you have a peanut allergy in your house, this would not be a good one for your family, my apologies.

You only need two ingredients for this recipe! Love it!

PEANUT BUTTER YOGURT DIP

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt

Dipping suggestions: bananas, apples, graham crackers

Mix the yogurt and peanut butter together until completely mixed. Try to refrain from licking the spoon over and over before the kids come home. 🙂

When I first made this I only had single-serve yogurt cups, 4oz each but they worked out great, I just used two. When I made a stop at the store later on in the week I picked up a bigger container and more peanut butter. The second time I made it, it was a weekend, and Alex mixed the whole thing herself, so even kids can make this dip pretty easily.

PB Yogurt Dip

My kids love to come home to a new after school snack.

That’s it! That’s all there is to it. The first batch I made had a little left over, the second time I made it, the entire thing went. Give it a try and see what you think!

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